Tramlines, Cyclops and Trinity
Stepped for the first time on to a tennis court with my own racquet. Well, it has been a year since I actually bought it, but the Midwest Tournament last year and this year too had kept me off the court. I was too lazy to do anything more than the hour or two of cricket that the practice sessions afforded. But after much plans with two buddies, I just had to go today. And I enjoyed my two hours.
Make no mistake. I can’t serve to save my skin. I think I had just two legitimate serves in the four or five of the games I served in. All the rest, were double faults. Most of them even failed to enter the other half of the court while some really went past and were too good to be accepted as valid. But to compensate for this lacking, I seem to have a wonderful return of serve. Yeah, I know I am talking too much. I do this all the time, so don’t even bother telling me.
Coming back to the tennis, partnered one buddy for a single set, which we won, I think 6-2. We changed partners for the next set. My serving woes continued this set to and after much huffing and puffing by my partner, peppered with a few winners from me from all parts of the court, scores were level at 6 each. Then we decided to forgo the tiebreaker and after some more rallies found ourselves at 7 each and all the others ready to go home. Then it was decided that whoever wins the game wins the set and naturally we won, me doing the honors with a couple of magic shots and service returns.
I think the game of tennis has been enriched by the entry of a talented player into the fold. But then everything is enriched if I am around. Whatever, I am out, its so late here that I am falling over the keyboard. Have to catch some winks.
Update:
I just got in to fix the QOTD which I missed last night (early this morning) at 4:00 am. Here it is...
QOTD: "New Yorkers love it when you spill your guts out there [at Flushing Meadow]. Spill your guts at Wimbledon and they make you stop and clean it up." - Jimmy Connors comparing British and American attitudes to displays of emotion on court.
Thursday, August 07, 2003
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
Cricket Quiz
I had sent in my review and a quiz to the TOC for the e-zine and I think you must have seen the review by now. But the quiz never appeared on the e-zine beacause there was very poor response for the first one (mine was the second) and
so they discontinued the quiz. Try to answer it. The questions follow. Leave your answers in the comments box below the post. Answers in a couple of days or as and when I get around to do it....
Cricket Quiz
01. Ellis Edgar Achong played 38 first class matches including 6 test matches for the West Indies in the period between 1929 and 1935. Primarily a bowler, he finished his first class career with 110 wickets at 30.23 runs apeice. He also stood one Test Match as a umpire in 1953/54 (West Indies versus England, 4th test at Port of Spain). Little else is known about this son of a Chinese father and a Trinidadian mother, but he has contributed a term used these days in cricket (more often these days, when Australia is playing). What term are we talking about?
02. Five of the authors of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) article titled “Exact moment of a gastrocnemius muscle strain captured on video" are Orchard JW, Alcott E, James T, Farhart P, Portus M. Name the sixth "author". (I have a copy of the journal article and the actual videos that were part of the article too. Ask me if you want to see them.)
03. Yorkshire's Herbert Sutcliffe and Percy Holmes put on a record partnership for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton. It was then the highest partnership for any wicket in first-class cricket history. What brand name of cigarettes (allegedly) takes its name from this partnership ?
04. Who was the only bowler to have got Don Bradman out hitting his own wicket ?
05. In 1949, Australian Broadcasting Corporation changed its P.O Box number. What was the occasion and what was it changed to?
06. Who is the only player to have opened the bowling, the batting and also keep wickets, all in the same test match ?
07. Brett Lee has two nicknames. The first is is Bing. His second nickname is what? And why is it that way?
08. A "famous" cat called Peter (it was REALLY called Peter, I swear) died in 1965 in London. Where did it usually loiter and what is so trivially strange about its death?
09. Who was the non-striker when Javed Miandad hit that famous last-ball six off Chetan Sharma at Sharjah?
10. Soccer, Cricket Connection - Whats common to Franz Beckanbauer and Mario Zagallo and Geoff Marsh?
-x-x-finito-x-x-
P.S: Most of the questions have been framed by me based on facts gleaned from the Net (basically from Cricinfo). A couple have been framed based on my own knowledge of the game too. There may be (just a possibility that I can't really discount) multiple answers to these. However, I, as the quizmaster, reserve all the rights to rule an answer incorrect. Yeah, you don't get any prizes too. People who read this post and don't answer the questions are losers. Don't worry, I am a loser too... So have fun.
QOTD: "..a bumble bee has just come to have a look at us through the window... they're lovely buzzy things, I rather like bumble bees, bumble bees and ladybirds" (Henry Blofeld on Radio4, England Vs Sri Lanka, 2nd Test, 06/01/02, Edgbaston )
I had sent in my review and a quiz to the TOC for the e-zine and I think you must have seen the review by now. But the quiz never appeared on the e-zine beacause there was very poor response for the first one (mine was the second) and
so they discontinued the quiz. Try to answer it. The questions follow. Leave your answers in the comments box below the post. Answers in a couple of days or as and when I get around to do it....
Cricket Quiz
01. Ellis Edgar Achong played 38 first class matches including 6 test matches for the West Indies in the period between 1929 and 1935. Primarily a bowler, he finished his first class career with 110 wickets at 30.23 runs apeice. He also stood one Test Match as a umpire in 1953/54 (West Indies versus England, 4th test at Port of Spain). Little else is known about this son of a Chinese father and a Trinidadian mother, but he has contributed a term used these days in cricket (more often these days, when Australia is playing). What term are we talking about?
02. Five of the authors of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) article titled “Exact moment of a gastrocnemius muscle strain captured on video" are Orchard JW, Alcott E, James T, Farhart P, Portus M. Name the sixth "author". (I have a copy of the journal article and the actual videos that were part of the article too. Ask me if you want to see them.)
03. Yorkshire's Herbert Sutcliffe and Percy Holmes put on a record partnership for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton. It was then the highest partnership for any wicket in first-class cricket history. What brand name of cigarettes (allegedly) takes its name from this partnership ?
04. Who was the only bowler to have got Don Bradman out hitting his own wicket ?
05. In 1949, Australian Broadcasting Corporation changed its P.O Box number. What was the occasion and what was it changed to?
06. Who is the only player to have opened the bowling, the batting and also keep wickets, all in the same test match ?
07. Brett Lee has two nicknames. The first is is Bing. His second nickname is what? And why is it that way?
08. A "famous" cat called Peter (it was REALLY called Peter, I swear) died in 1965 in London. Where did it usually loiter and what is so trivially strange about its death?
09. Who was the non-striker when Javed Miandad hit that famous last-ball six off Chetan Sharma at Sharjah?
10. Soccer, Cricket Connection - Whats common to Franz Beckanbauer and Mario Zagallo and Geoff Marsh?
-x-x-finito-x-x-
P.S: Most of the questions have been framed by me based on facts gleaned from the Net (basically from Cricinfo). A couple have been framed based on my own knowledge of the game too. There may be (just a possibility that I can't really discount) multiple answers to these. However, I, as the quizmaster, reserve all the rights to rule an answer incorrect. Yeah, you don't get any prizes too. People who read this post and don't answer the questions are losers. Don't worry, I am a loser too... So have fun.
QOTD: "..a bumble bee has just come to have a look at us through the window... they're lovely buzzy things, I rather like bumble bees, bumble bees and ladybirds" (Henry Blofeld on Radio4, England Vs Sri Lanka, 2nd Test, 06/01/02, Edgbaston )
Monday, August 04, 2003
Trouble viewing this blog?
A couple of people (okie... it just one, but "couple" sounds better) said they have had a "windows installer" window popping up when they come to this page. And then the computer hangs. I am inclined to think that this is one of those quirks that crop up time and again in Windows. However, if you hear about someone else facing this same problem, please tell me. I will look into my template to see if something's wrong.
And thanks to you Shobha, I took today's quote from your page. Thought it was fitting....
QOTD: "It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical." - Anne Frank (from the "Diary of Anne Frank")
A couple of people (okie... it just one, but "couple" sounds better) said they have had a "windows installer" window popping up when they come to this page. And then the computer hangs. I am inclined to think that this is one of those quirks that crop up time and again in Windows. However, if you hear about someone else facing this same problem, please tell me. I will look into my template to see if something's wrong.
And thanks to you Shobha, I took today's quote from your page. Thought it was fitting....
QOTD: "It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical." - Anne Frank (from the "Diary of Anne Frank")
Sunday, August 03, 2003
Friendship Day(s) are here again!
Apparently it was Friendship Day today (3rd August). Well, my roomie just corrected me by saying that because today was the first Sunday in August, it is Friendship Day and not because it is the 3rd of August. For someone who spent 4 years in a hostel and then two years now away from home in the US, it is not really a surprise that my life has passed in such a way that the thin line between friends and family has been kind of fogged. These days I don’t really differentiate between them. In fact sometimes I feel that I am more comfortable with my friends than with family (barring my parents and my sister of course)!
Students of sociology and the associated sciences would affirm to the fact that this is just a logical phase in one’s life and I am inclined to agree with the same. But I don’t really agree that these relationships that form an integral part of life should be celebrated. Why do you want to just put a day aside and say today is “Friendship Day”? Aren’t friendships (or for that matter, any other relationship) a clear part of everybody’s life as they live it? Wouldn’t “Magic Nathan” be my friend if I don’t send him a line thanking him for being a part of my life? I am sure he won’t react in the most negative sense and disavow our friendship (which I am quite glad to say, goes back like 18 years now), but I think he would be miffed. But then, he is miffed with any such trivial proceeding or the lack thereof. So life goes on.
Sorry dude, no virtual greeting cards today. Too much waste of bandwidth. I am using that bandwidth to put up this posting, so the world will be enriched. That is just why my father/mother does not get a greeting card for “Father’s Day/Mother’s Day". I am sure they don’t really care, because they hail from the days when India was still a sheltered and closed economy and Archie’s was still a figment of someone’s imagination in India. I think of you everyday guys, so I am sure you don’t really want me to send you an e-card just to say so. And Magic dude, I am sure you will understand that, if the situation demands, I would gladly spend four hours inside an entertainment center (if you find a size that will accommodate me).
But yeah, courtesy demands that if I get a card today, I reply to it either with a similar card or e-mail. I am doing that just now. “Magic” sent us all (the group) a mail on the account of today with a sweet verse affirming his sense of belonging to the group and how we are his friends. Dude, you have already done enough for all of us. We know you. This posting is actually in response to that email. Now another friend of mine, who normally does not resort to such sugary emotions, sent me a card and I dutifully sent her one in return. Hope that’s enough saccharine for all you biker babes out there. It’s enough for me. And yeah, no offense meant to all you “Friendship Day” fanatics. Send me a card and I will send you one in return. Don’t shun me completely. As John Lennon once said “I get by with a little help from my friends”. So do I.
And to end today’s post, I have to include something from what is probably the best ode to friendships in the modern world – the NBC sitcom FRIENDS!!! (Non-believers please excuse!!)
QOTD – 1: “Married a lesbian, left a man at the altar, married a gay ice dancer, threw a girl's wooden leg in the fire, lived in a box!” (Monica describing each of the “Friends”)
QOTD – 2: "Ross…. Joey. Joey…Ross." (Monica, introducing Ross and Joey to each other for the first time)
Apparently it was Friendship Day today (3rd August). Well, my roomie just corrected me by saying that because today was the first Sunday in August, it is Friendship Day and not because it is the 3rd of August. For someone who spent 4 years in a hostel and then two years now away from home in the US, it is not really a surprise that my life has passed in such a way that the thin line between friends and family has been kind of fogged. These days I don’t really differentiate between them. In fact sometimes I feel that I am more comfortable with my friends than with family (barring my parents and my sister of course)!
Students of sociology and the associated sciences would affirm to the fact that this is just a logical phase in one’s life and I am inclined to agree with the same. But I don’t really agree that these relationships that form an integral part of life should be celebrated. Why do you want to just put a day aside and say today is “Friendship Day”? Aren’t friendships (or for that matter, any other relationship) a clear part of everybody’s life as they live it? Wouldn’t “Magic Nathan” be my friend if I don’t send him a line thanking him for being a part of my life? I am sure he won’t react in the most negative sense and disavow our friendship (which I am quite glad to say, goes back like 18 years now), but I think he would be miffed. But then, he is miffed with any such trivial proceeding or the lack thereof. So life goes on.
Sorry dude, no virtual greeting cards today. Too much waste of bandwidth. I am using that bandwidth to put up this posting, so the world will be enriched. That is just why my father/mother does not get a greeting card for “Father’s Day/Mother’s Day". I am sure they don’t really care, because they hail from the days when India was still a sheltered and closed economy and Archie’s was still a figment of someone’s imagination in India. I think of you everyday guys, so I am sure you don’t really want me to send you an e-card just to say so. And Magic dude, I am sure you will understand that, if the situation demands, I would gladly spend four hours inside an entertainment center (if you find a size that will accommodate me).
But yeah, courtesy demands that if I get a card today, I reply to it either with a similar card or e-mail. I am doing that just now. “Magic” sent us all (the group) a mail on the account of today with a sweet verse affirming his sense of belonging to the group and how we are his friends. Dude, you have already done enough for all of us. We know you. This posting is actually in response to that email. Now another friend of mine, who normally does not resort to such sugary emotions, sent me a card and I dutifully sent her one in return. Hope that’s enough saccharine for all you biker babes out there. It’s enough for me. And yeah, no offense meant to all you “Friendship Day” fanatics. Send me a card and I will send you one in return. Don’t shun me completely. As John Lennon once said “I get by with a little help from my friends”. So do I.
And to end today’s post, I have to include something from what is probably the best ode to friendships in the modern world – the NBC sitcom FRIENDS!!! (Non-believers please excuse!!)
QOTD – 1: “Married a lesbian, left a man at the altar, married a gay ice dancer, threw a girl's wooden leg in the fire, lived in a box!” (Monica describing each of the “Friends”)
QOTD – 2: "Ross…. Joey. Joey…Ross." (Monica, introducing Ross and Joey to each other for the first time)
Friday, August 01, 2003
Snakes and electoral planks
"Good sense will prevail even on those who are opposing it... We feel confident in front of his funeral pyre." – The words of the head of the government in what is supposedly “the world’s largest democracy”. Food for thought here. Indians have been continuously misled by people (read “politicians”) who have harped on this (erroneous) fact for ages. Erroneous, considering that India is not the biggest country in the world and also because most of the countries which are bigger are also democracies (or so they claim). Hence do we treat such claims seriously? Hmmm, I am transgressing as usual here.
Well, I initially started this post with a line delivered by India’s Prime Minister at some random person’s funeral. I mean no disrespect to a dead citizen of India, but I think too much newsprint has been wasted on the death of someone who was part of the whole jamboree that still aims to disturb the peace in India everyday. This random person happened to be the head of the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, a society that claims to be at the forefront of the struggle for a temple at Ayodhya, a struggle which (if successful) would doom India to the very fate that it was left to when the British left. That the Prime Minister chose to be there at his funeral and also made such a provocative statement proves that doom is in the horizon unless the vote bank wakes up. Lets let go of religious interests when we vote.
This is a lesson for all of us voters. A poisonous snake never loses its capability to kill. That’s nature.
QOTD: "We will fulfill his (the Mahant's) last wish. We are confident that all obstacles will be removed and the path paved for it” - A. B. Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India (August 1st, 2003)
"Good sense will prevail even on those who are opposing it... We feel confident in front of his funeral pyre." – The words of the head of the government in what is supposedly “the world’s largest democracy”. Food for thought here. Indians have been continuously misled by people (read “politicians”) who have harped on this (erroneous) fact for ages. Erroneous, considering that India is not the biggest country in the world and also because most of the countries which are bigger are also democracies (or so they claim). Hence do we treat such claims seriously? Hmmm, I am transgressing as usual here.
Well, I initially started this post with a line delivered by India’s Prime Minister at some random person’s funeral. I mean no disrespect to a dead citizen of India, but I think too much newsprint has been wasted on the death of someone who was part of the whole jamboree that still aims to disturb the peace in India everyday. This random person happened to be the head of the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, a society that claims to be at the forefront of the struggle for a temple at Ayodhya, a struggle which (if successful) would doom India to the very fate that it was left to when the British left. That the Prime Minister chose to be there at his funeral and also made such a provocative statement proves that doom is in the horizon unless the vote bank wakes up. Lets let go of religious interests when we vote.
This is a lesson for all of us voters. A poisonous snake never loses its capability to kill. That’s nature.
QOTD: "We will fulfill his (the Mahant's) last wish. We are confident that all obstacles will be removed and the path paved for it” - A. B. Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India (August 1st, 2003)
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